Mr. Cardin mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Cardin i would ask consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Cardin i ask unanimous consent the floor privileges be granted to elise medical mellinger for the dwraition of Senate Consideration of h. R. 3304, the National Defense authorization act. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Cardin let me first comment about the National Defense authorization act. It is an important bill for us to pass and i thank senator levin and senator inhofe for the manner on which they worked on this legislation, bringing it together, in the committee it was a bipartisan bill, as it came to the floor it maintained that focus on helping our troops and helping preserve our National Security. And as we are starting to consider amendments, i think that same cooperation was there there. Powerful we lost track unfortunately we lost course, but the bill before us represents
Intelligence threats, cyber terrorism, and edward snowden. This is a little more than an hour. This is a list you do of accomplishments of a man and i have to recite them but i will go really fast. He was a white house fellow and he had the experience of working with the National Security council with such deadheads as Henry Kissinger whats the generals name . General brent snowcroft. He had three major positions in the senate including being the Administrative Assistant chief of staff, International Policy advisor to chris dodd. And a stint with robert byrd, one of the great characters of american politics. There are few companies he did not touch. Im sorry. He had such power that he moved their headquarters from texas to greenwich, which was quite amazing. He was assistant dean of the Fletcher School of law and policy and director of communications for the number one position or place in intelligence in the United States of america. Most recently as the Communications Director of the
The direction alone doesnt tell us much about what his objective is here but poncho pass does tell us something. This is the view that pike would have from his Christmas Day camp and for several days before and after. Poncho pass is a low spot in the mountains a little bit to the southwest of the city of saliva and if pike looked south he would have found it very inviting place to cross the mountains. His mission is to get to santa fe. This is as good a place as any to try and do it. If he stands in the same spot and looks to the left he is going to see the high peaks of the northern end of the Crystal Mountains and he will realize if i want to cross its never going to get any better than this so he doesnt. He continues downstream which is exactly the behavior somebody who believed he was on the red river and intending to head home. Decides to cross this andres there would be two men behind on the arkansas. The horses are shot in the plan is to leave a couple of men behind but the hors
Risking their lives instead of staying at home on the ohio river and risking their lives a little bit less. So pike makes the same request of congress. He forged letters from jefferson and dearborn and secretary of state James Madison and things like that in congress, the committee reviewing the request votes in favor of granting him this but by this point the expedition is inextricable from the politics dividing congress over jefferson and burr and wilkinson in general and Congress Never votes. My guess, there is no record of why they dont vote. No one made the decision not to vote but the last evidence we have in the congressional record as of the Committee Voting to bring it to a vote on the floor and then it just disappears until the 1840s when we have a comments by his widow clara who is requesting that the reward be paid to her. By this point she is destitute. Then she dies before they do anything. My guess about whats going on is twofold. One is burr is acquitted and he has a lo
The gentleman for his response, mr. Speaker. The question was yes we want to get people back to work. Everybody wants to get people back to work. There is no doubt about that. Hopefully, we would be at full employment. One defines that whether three percent or four percent unemployment which would be transition employment or unemployment. We want everybody back to work. The issue is if we dont get everybody back to work, 192,000 new jobs this past month that is good but not good enough. Is why we have continuing 6. 7 unemployment. My question to the majority assume forif argument that the letter to which he refers is accurate. I dont accept that premise but accepting that premise but the minute with the majority leader be amenable to rather than do what the senate does making a retrospective so that the 3. 5 months that wouldve gone from january 1 or december 29, i suppose, of last year to today and paying that back. Simply extending for five months while people continue to look for em